In the summer of 2016 I traveled to Paris to learn the héliogravure process, the oldest photographic process invented by Joseph Nicéphore Niepce in 1826. For nearly a month I worked one-on-one with master intaglio printer Fanny Boucher at her studio in Meudon to create six copper plates and over thirty original prints. Fanny is a remarkable teacher. Her expertise in héliogravure and intaglio printing is unmatched in France and she is one of a handful of people worldwide, and one of the only women, still working with traditional methods and equipment. The process was as laborious, time-consuming, and meditative as I had hoped. Each plate and print required my full attention, focus, and patience. It took days to produce each piece and every step in the process was in service to the next. The organic quality of the materials, their vitality, was what struck me the most. Photographic images could be re-animated long after the exposures were made. The deliberate activity of constructing the copper plates and inking each print encouraged the exploration of the very distance and intimacy I seek in the images themselves.

héliogravure

acid bath

finished copper plates

etched copper plate

inking the plate

placing the plate on the press

héliogravure

Héliogravure 5

Héliogravure 1

Héliogravure 2

Héliogravure 3

Héliogravure 4

Héliogravure 6

héliogravure after exposure the plate is put in water and gelatin is removed.